Cheap Motel Rooms, Red Sand & a Trill Fuel Station
by RumAndNukaCola
Summary: OC Based on a Roleplay. Pirating is all fun and games, right? At least she thought so until that morning orbiting Trill.


Two hours.

Alex had been laying there, awake, for two hours. It felt like six. Maybe it was the heat in the Trill orbit, maybe it was Caleb's snoring, maybe it was the fact that she'd been more than 14 hours without Hallex and her teeth were already starting to hurt. It wouldn't be long till her ears started ringing, then everything else would start hurting before it got really serious and it felt like her blood was on fire again.

She rolled over, tossing the last of the blanket off herself and trying to keep it together. Caleb had drank his own weight in Tortugan Red as part of the celebrations last night, he wasn't waking up for anything less than a nuclear missile and even then, it'd be like waking up a Thresher Maw. She just had to keep control of herself until he woke up and then they could go to Trill and score some Hallex. That's if there wasn't some on this fuel station, which there probably was if she asked the right people. They hadn't had a problem getting Red Sand last night...

She rolled out of bed and grimaced. Her mouth tasted like ass, again, and without Hallex to pick her up this hangover was going to be a rough one. She glanced at the sink, tossing up the idea of getting a drink, but she knew better than to risk Fuel Station water. Usually if it didn't taste like shit it had _something_ bad in it. She opted for a swig of leftover Red instead, wincing at the taste but deciding it was better than nothing. Alex slammed the bottle back on the table, noticing the small bag of red sand.

Actually, small wasn't the right term. It was pretty well portioned, Caleb must have paid a bit for it. Alex couldn't remember, Red Sand wasn't her thing and she was too busy drinking and trying to light her cigarette at the time to notice. But while it wasn't her _thing,_ Alex was in a pinch, and if she didn't get _something_ in her system, getting anywhere was going to be a problem. She glanced over at Caleb. He wouldn't mind, he'd borrowed a few Hallex from her before, and she only needed a _little_ bit to keep her going.

Grabbing the receipt for the Tortugan Red and rolling it up, Alex listened to him snore. Once, when they wound up on Kahje after a smuggling job, he'd invited this Asari back to their room with them after one of the messier parties. Alex didn't mind her, she was a bit sheltered and gullible – obviously if Caleb could talk her into _that_, - but the next morning she heard Caleb snoring and asked Alex why she put up with him. Alex put her head through the wall. She wasn't sure what it was, but that infuriated her. Maybe it was the fact that she insinuated they were a couple, which they weren't. They just fucked around a lot for the sake of convenience. Maybe it was the way she said 'put up.' Like Alex didn't want to be there. Of course she wanted to be there, Caleb was good with a shotgun and could rip off a Krogan's quads with his biotics – with Alex's aim and tech skills, they were a fucking _force._ His snoring was a small, small price to pay.

Having finished lining up the red sand, Alex leant over and began the glamorous process of snorting the Red Sand with the aid of the rolled up receipt. She blinked and breathed deeply as she held her nostril closed, her eyes watering as she threw her head back. This was why she didn't do Red Sand. Hallex was easy, no needles, no shoving shit up your nose, just toss down a pill every few hours and things are peachy. She glanced at Caleb from her seat. No wonder he snored so loud, his sinuses were probably shot to hell and back from this stuff.

Rubbing her eyes and taking a few minutes to recover, she sat on the edge of the bed. While she was hoping to take back her position, Caleb had stretched out into a full starfish across the bed, like the true gentlemen he was. She smiled a little to herself, running her thumb over his cheek, which still had a huge gash in it thanks to the Varren they'd run into, and thought about the night before. Hallex made a lot of things better, most things, actually. But Caleb wasn't one of them. There was something about him that made him the only bearable person in the world when she was in a shit mood or needed a hit or hungover. She was all three at the moment and she was fighting off the urge to climb on top of him. She didn't even care about how bad he smelled, it smelled like Caleb.

It was right then, when her thumb was somewhere over his jawbone, that the terrible realisation hit Alex in the stomach like a ton of bricks. They weren't just fucking around any more, at least she wasn't, anyway.

She slowly pulled her hand back and quietly whispered 'shit' to herself. This wasn't a good thing. Sure, she was a Pirate. She could fuck whoever she wanted whenever she felt like it as many times as she wished, but there was a reason Pirates didn't run around getting married. Alex began to panic a little, the Red Sand in her system not helping at all. She was Alex Lombard. Transport ships and freighters were afraid of _Alex Lombard._ Not _Alex and Caleb_ or _Alex and her boyfriend._ And anyway, if word got out that they were anything but fucking on the side because of anything but left over adrenaline, then he'd be a target. Hell, _she'd_ have twice as many people after her ass because god knows _he_ had more than a few hundred enemies that she hadn't already pissed off. This was why she worked alone for so long in the first place. She couldn't afford to worry about him. Caleb did dangerous shit but he worked with mercs. Alex didn't.

The Red Sand sending her panic into a frenzy, she stood up, searching for the rest of her clothes on the floor. Right now she regretted trashing the cheap motel room like they did, finding anything in here was going to be a pain in the ass, let alone her pistols and heatsinks. Even though Caleb was out for the count, she still stumbled about as quietly as possible, throwing on her clothes and gathering her things. She had to get out of this, and her only options were to slip out now or beat the shit out of him and leave him here, which would be hard because not only did she not _want_ to hit him but Caleb was much, much physically stronger than her.

Once she had her things, fidgeted with her bra, taking out a credit chit. Half her take from their last haul. She didn't know how much of his he'd spent, but that'd get him to Tortuga or Omega, just in case. Least she could do for him considering she was about to take their ship.

She gave Caleb one last look, tossing over writing a note or even kissing his forehead, even just touching him. But then his snoring stopped.

"Fuckin'... Volus... fuck..."

He wasn't awake, and his snoring continued, but Alex wasn't around to hear it. The door closed behind her and part of her was glad she was so strung out so she could concentrate on where to get some good Hallex instead of what she'd just left in that motel room.

Yeah. She was gonna need some Hallex. A lot of it.


End file.
